Outcome of Mexican Revolution

1. Outcome of Mexican Revolution • End to Mexican export oligarchy of 19th c. • Gradual efforts to mitigate glaring economic & political inequities • Rise of urban labor as political force • in Argentina & elsewhere as well • Yet land reform efforts of ‘20s (by Obregón & successor) seemed a failure • only marginal lands expropriated • little technology or training offered

2. Interpreting the revolution • process, vs. discreet event, 1910-1920s…. • popular & elite mvmt., in different episodes • multiple local insurrections, spurred by local grievances (or loyalty to hacendado) • resentment at appropriation of land, or work insecurity • sense of common cause with surrounding peasantry • secular elements of revolutionary ideology resisted by many peasants, esp. mothers

3. Nationalism in 20th c. Chasteen: “Nationalism positively reinterpreted the meaning of Lat Am racial & cultural difference, fostering collective self-respect.” It embraced “a more inclusive vision of social change” than neocolonialists had.

4. Jose Vasconcelos, Min. of Education indigenismo nationalism: virtues of pre-Columbian cultures, e.g. communalism Trained rural teaching corps • aimed to incorporate Indian peasants into modern Mex., as state envisioned it • emphasized literacy, sanitation • elements of this vision sometimes contested by peasantry • e.g. secular education violently resisted by devout Catholic peasants, encouraged by antirevolutionary church

5. “Completion of the Agrarian Revolution,” 1926Diego Rivera for Ministry of Education

6. Cosmic Race, Vasconcelos 1925 “The so-called Latin peoples are the ones called upon to consummate this mission. They insist on not taking the ethnic factor too much into account for their sexual relations, perhaps because from the beginning they are not, properly speaking, Latins but a conglomeration of different types and races. Whatever opinions one may express in this respect, and whatever repugnance caused by prejudice one may harbor, the truth is that the mixture of races has taken place & continues to be consummated. It is in this fusion of ethnic stocks that we should look for the fundamental characteristic of Ibero-American idiosyncrasy. In Latin America a thousand bridges are available for the sincere and cordial fusion of all races. We belong to tomorrow….”

7. Populism “political style aimed at urban working & middle classes” (Chasteen) • emerged in 1930s • alternative to oligarchy/foreign coalition • incorporated workers & peasants into state-sponsored organizations • harmonious social regulation (vs. class struggle)

8. Latin American in wider world c. 1900: Euro immigration to Lat Am temperate zone Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo 1914-1918 WWI , spurring Latin American industry 1917 Russian Revolution 1920s U.S.-dominated prosperity 1929 Stock market crash  1930s Great Depression & ISI policies 1939-45 WW2 also boost to Latin American industry

9. Constitution of 1917 restricted role of religions: could not own property, run schools or charities, hold processions, criticize gov’t labor reforms: 8 hr. workday; one weekly day off; min. wage paid in cash; no company stores; right to unionize; maternity leave; no child labor under age 6 land: subsoil reverted to nat’l property—not saleable to private interests, though concessions could be granted nullified former contracts made by gov’t if these “prejudice the public interest” opened means for peasants to reclaim land bought by estates, if they promised productive use

10. Lazaro Cardenas & revolution, 1930s • massive land redistribution of 45 million acres • to both collectives (ejidos) & individual smallholders (ranchos) • though landowners could retain most desirable parcels for themselves • provided roads, schools & health facilities to thousands of villages  • National Dept. of Indigenous Affairs • National Institute for Mexican Anthropology

11. Outcome of Cardenas reforms • somewhat increased ag. production • wealthier internal market spurring industrial growth & consumption • tariffs to protect nascent Mexican industry • frequent worker strikes & formation of new unions, due to government sympathy • revolutionary generals weakened within main political party

12. Populism “political style aimed at urban working & middle classes” • emerged in 1930s • alternative to oligarchy/foreign coalition • incorporated workers & peasants into state-sponsored organizations • harmonious social regulation (vs. class struggle)

13. social cost of Argentine positivism • immigrants confined to city tenements • trade imbalances & rising foreign debt inflation, which hurt wage workers most 1890 failed attempt to overthrow oligarchy rising middle class frustration with elite 1912 Sáenz Peña Law (president) • universal adult male suffrage • secret ballot elections To win back bourgeois support

14. Juan Peron, Argentina 1943 Min. of Labor following military coup 1945 arrested; released after mass rally popularity aided by wife, Eva (d. 1952) Wealthy post-war yrs. fueled ISI policies • nationalized foreign-owned industries • supported worker demands & unions  • funded schools, hospitals, housing for poor  • funded military to retain their support

15. Favela slums, Rio de Janeiro